Legal Clarity and Ownership Protection: One of the primary reasons for maintaining an up-to-date land registry is to ensure legal clarity and protect your ownership rights. The land registry serves as an official record of property ownership, defining the boundaries and details of your property. By registering your property with the Land Registry, you create a clear and indisputable record of ownership, reducing the risk of potential disputes with neighbours or other parties.

Facilitating Property Transactions: When it comes to buying or selling a property, a current land registry entry is essential. Prospective buyers will rely on this information to verify your ownership and any existing charges or encumbrances on the property. An accurate and up-to-date land registry can significantly streamline the selling process and inspire confidence in potential buyers, potentially leading to faster and smoother property transactions.

Securing Mortgages and Financing: If you plan to obtain a mortgage or seek significant financing against your property, lenders will almost certainly require a land registry search. An accurate registry assures lenders that the property’s ownership status is clear and that the property’s value aligns with their financing requirements. Ensuring your land registry is up to date can facilitate the mortgage approval process and secure favourable financing terms.

Preventing Property Fraud: Maintaining a well-maintained land registry is a proactive measure to prevent property fraud. Unfortunately, property fraud can happen, and fraudulent attempts to transfer ownership, secure unauthorized mortgages, or sell properties that do not belong to the fraudster can be financially devastating. By keeping your land registry current, you minimize the risk of falling victim to such fraudulent activities.

Supporting Planning and Development: Local authorities rely on land registry data to plan for infrastructure, housing developments, and community projects. By keeping your land registry up to date, you contribute to efficient planning and decision-making processes, which can benefit the community and potentially increase the value of your property.

Access to Government Services: Accurate land registry information is essential for government agencies to conduct tax assessments, property valuations, and other public services. Keeping your land registry updated ensures that these services are administered fairly and efficiently, benefiting both you as a landlord and the wider community.

In summary, maintaining an up-to-date land registry is an essential responsibility. By doing so, you safeguard your ownership rights, facilitate property transactions, and protect yourself against potential fraud.

Section 18 entitles the landlord to double the passing rent where the tenant has given a notice that he will quit the premises at a specified time but subsequently continues to occupy the premises in contravention of the notice.

The failure of the tenant to vacate on the expiry of its notice to quit triggers the landlord’s entitlement to double rent under the 1737 Act. The double rent becomes chargeable for the period of “holding over” by the tenant, i.e. from the expiry of the notice until the day the tenant actually vacates.

For section 18 to apply, the landlord must treat the former tenant as a trespasser in unlawful occupation and must not do or say anything which would treat the lease as continuing.

It is therefore essential that the landlord does not accept rent at the old level once the notice to quit has expired otherwise he will be held to have waived his right to claim double rent.

The object of the 1737 Act is to compensate the landlord for potential loss of rent when the tenant held over against the landlord’s insistence that the tenant should comply with his notice to quit. Therefore, similarly to the 1730 Act, the right to double rent arises only when the tenant holds over after he has served a notice to quit and, therefore, is in fact a trespasser and the landlord treats him as such.

Since 2012 under s144 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 landlords can now notify the police that their property is occupied by trespassers as this is now a criminal offence so do not necessarily need to use the civil court system. However, much will depend on the willingness of the police to intervene and, where the police are not willing to make arrests, landlords will need to follow the civil law rules which are still in force